We need to stop the modern obscenity that is payday lending.

A petition has been launched and I urge all fair-minded Australians to sign it at www.stoptheloansharks.com

The petition calls on the Morrison Liberal Government to stop stalling and get on with the job of legislating important reforms to protect vulnerable Australians.

Payday lenders hawk misery by praying on the vulnerable.  They offer short-term loans with interest rates over 800 per cent. As a result, a household clothes dryer costs $3,000 instead of $345.

Payday lending to financially vulnerable families has skyrocketed in one decade to 650,000 households.

Labor has introduced a Private Member’s Bill to reform payday lending and rent-to-buy laws. This legislation would, amongst other things, impose a ceiling on the total payments that can be made under a rent-to-buy scheme; require payday loans to have equal repayments and equal payment intervals; and  remove the ability for Small Amount Credit Contract providers to charge monthly fees on residual term of a loan where a consumer fully repays the loan early and ban unsolicited sales of the schemes.